The slightest criticism of the oppressive and barbaric [Pahlavi] regime was responded with a violent and bloody confrontation, and Shah's infernal SAVAK—organized and equipped by the U.S.’s CIA and anti-human Zionists—had prepared the most brutal tortures and the most dreadful prisons to suppress those who dared to oppose that regime.
Imam Khamenei, February 10, 1999
